Whiringa-ā-rangi
6th Month of the Matariki Year - November/December
Ka maranga mai a Pareārau i te tahatū o te rangi rawhiti tonga ki te rawhiti. Kei te tiki kai ngā manu mō o rātou pīpī. Kei te pūāwai te Pōhutukawa me te Hīnau. Kei te kitea hoki ngā pepe pūriri i te ngahere. Kei te kaha te whiti o Tama Nui te Rä, he wā wera mō Papatūānuku.
Jupiter rises in the east-southeast. Birds gather food for their chicks. Pōhutukawa and Hīnau are covered in flowers. Puriri moths can be found in the forest. The sun is strong and earth is quite hot.
Jupiter rises in the east-southeast. Birds gather food for their chicks. Pōhutukawa and Hīnau are covered in flowers. Puriri moths can be found in the forest. The sun is strong and earth is quite hot.
Nīkau Cabbage Palm Rhopalostylis sapida
‘Te wao tapu nui a Tāne.’
‘The great sacred forest of Tāne.’
This whakatauākī (proverb) is a reference to Tāne as kaitiaki, or guardian of the forest and that all that grows or lives within it is sacred.
The sun has grown strong and earth is quite hot when the soft, sticky, lilac-pink flowers of Nīkau burst from their pods in Whiringa-ā-rangi (6th Matariki month).
Nīkau, the only species of palm native to New Zealand, can be found growing in coastal and low mountainous regions from North Cape at the far top of the North Island to Banks Peninsula on the east coast and Okarito on the western seaboard of the South Island. It also grows 800 km east on the cold windswept Islands of Rēkohu (Chatham) and Rangiauria (Pitt) at a latitude of 44° 18’S making it the worlds’ southern most palm. Those in the south are likely to be more frost-tolerant than those in the north, and those on the coast somewhat hardier than those in the bush.
Shaped by their environment, they can vary from upright and stout to gracefully arching. Nīkau are very slow growing. They can take between 40 to 50 years to form a trunk and over 200 years to reach 15m, or full maturity. About two, 3m long fronds, are shed from the tree every year, leaving a band of leaf scar behind on the trunk. The nectar filled clusters of sweet smelling flowers are a rich source of food for many insects and birds especially Kereru, as are its red berries.
It was also a valuable resource for māori. Care must be taken with the central leaf bud or rito, as damaging it will bring death to the tree. Nīkau is an offspring of Tāne Mahuta (God of the forest) and Tunarangi (Guardian of Koromiko, Fern-Root, Harakeke and Nīkau).
